SEMINARS
At every instant,
and from every side,
resounds
the call of Love:
we are going to the sky,
who wants to come with us?
We have gone to Heaven,
we have been the friends
of the angels
and now we will go back there,
for there is our country.
We are higher
than Heaven,
more noble than the angels:
why not go beyond them?
Our goal is
the Supreme Majesty.
What has the fine pearl to do
with the world of dust?
Why have you come down here?
Take your baggage back.
Like the birds of the sea,
men come from the Ocean
- the Ocean of the soul.
How could this bird,
born from that sea,
make his dwelling here?
No, we are the pearls
from the bosom
of the sea,
it is there
that we dwell.
Jalaluddin Rumi
The Sufi practises that Shaykh Burhanuddin proposes during his seminars, belong to the tradition and at the same time adapt to the contemporary man. These methods have the purpose to lead the participants to recognize themselves beyond the veils of the illusion to be separated from the Whole, and without the over-structures of conditionings. In this way it becomes possible to have an experience of the awakening and to live it then in the daily life.
Shaykh Burhanuddin brings the participants to share an authentic experience, opening their heart to the mysticism and Beauty of life. During the process of a seminar, through any teaching or method he is transmitting, he is constantly infusing divine Love in the hearts of the participants. This process helps them to simply be, overcoming the personality limits. They start looking at their so-called problems in a wider and more real perspective, with less attachment. “There are no objective problems. You are the problem! God has no problems! So just give them to Him!” Shaykh Burhanuddin likes to remind them. The participants finally and inevitably are softly pushed to turn into a wider orbit, the orbit of Love that pervades everything.
Shaykh Burhanuddin's ability in storytelling - he uses traditional Sufi stories, or real episodes of his adventurous life - combined with his cheerful sense of humour, succeed in breaking through the seriousness everyone has in a certain measure about himself. He brings the participants with ease and a light heart in a state of receptive listening, which makes easy the absorption of the inspired teachings he transmits with an unchanged care and loving attitude towards everyone, whatever background they come from or religious belief they have embraced.
Shaykh Burhanuddin likes to say: “All there is, is Love. Light and Love: this is all that exists. The existence is in harmony. It is us who are distorted. We feel life as a burden, but only the ego is a burden. God is Love and wants to give you Love, peace. Don’t feel hurt or punished by anything happening to you, do not focus on yourself, be with God, say 'I am what I am, and I just want to be with You'. He can do everything. God is only Love. There is just Love. Whatever you do, do it with Love, do it for Love's sake. To worry means to ignore God. To trust and to love means to recognize Him, to testify Him.”
These spiritual window-shoppers,
who idly ask,
"How much is that?
Oh, I'm just looking".
They handle a hundred items
and put them down,
shadows
with no capital.
What is spent is love
and two eyes
wet with weeping.
But these walk into a shop,
and their whole lives
pass suddenly
in that moment,
in that shop.
Where did you go?
"Nowhere".
What did you have to eat?
"Nothing much".
Even if you don't know
what you want,
buy ‘something’,
to be part
of the exchanging flow.
Start a huge
foolish project,
like Noah.
It makes absolutely
no difference
what people think
of you.
Jalaluddin Rumi
In the Sufi tradition it is said that what separates us from the Divine is our ego, the veils of our fears, expectations, desires, depressions, and Shaykh Burhanuddin loves to repeat: “Let them fall and you will see that Love is greeting you, welcoming you. Forget about your personal story. Invent yourself new, every moment”.
Even in the short process of a weekend seminar, Shaykh Burhanuddin‘s work, combined with the availability of the participant, can effectively show the key to pull down these veils and allow the attendees to look at themselves and to the others with the fresh eyes of Love. Once they have tasted this opening, even if only for one second, then it becomes difficult to forget it. And if they are strongly determined, this may become their search, the purpose of their life on earth, their journey to the Beloved.
To look at the people's faces coming out from a meeting guided by Shaykh Burhanuddin, it is always amazing: the opening he produces in their hearts let their hidden Beauty appear straight in the light of their eyes. “Because there is only one Light! And that is the Light of God!” he loves to say.
The most common worry of the participants when the seminar is finished is to forget the state they experienced, and to get again lost in the maze of distractions of daily life. The advice and clear instructions that Shaykh Burhanuddin offers about the daily practices and the following up he assures to the ones who intend to walk the path, combined with the opening to a connection with the Divine, makes him a complete teacher. He transmits them all the necessary instruments to become more and more familiar with that state and to fix it in their hearts.
